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Sumter product wants to finish strong at Lander

Jessica Harris is a contender for the Peach Belt Conference Player of the Year award which she won as a junior

Jessica Harris has come a long way in her four years at Lander University.

Bearcat head coach Kevin Pederson has seen first hand the growth in her game since her days as a freshman guard at Lander.

"You look at a kid who's our third leading scorer all-time, leads us in assists all-time, steals all-time. She's probably up there in made 3s," said Pederson.

"It's funny when you look back four years ago when we were recruiting her out of Sumter High School and I was looking at this skinny, small kid and I said, 'If you come here, you're going to have a chance to rewrite the record books. We're going to give you a chance to start right off the bat."

Pederson says the assists and steals were there immediately but then as a junior, her scoring reached another level.

After averaging 10 points her firs two season, she increased that average to 16.9 as a junior and that's one of the reasons she was named the Peach Belt Conference Player of the Year.

She has a chance to go back-to-back for the 22nd-ranked Bearcats but she is getting some competition from fellow senior Tabitha Daley who actually leads Lander in scoring (16.1) ahead of Harris (15.0). Daley also is the top rebounder for Lander (7.0).

Regardless, the former News19 Player of the Week says she had no idea her career would be where it is right now as the calendar prepares to turn to March 2020.

"I'm very surprised," Harris said.

"I guess I never imagined even scoring a thousand points I just thought 'come, be a good basketball, be a good teammate of course. So, all these accomplishments, it's very surprising."

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